Judge Dismisses Google Street View Case 258
angry tapir writes "A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Pennsylvania family against Google after the company took and posted images of the outside of their house in its Maps service. The lawsuit, filed in April 2008, drew attention because it sought to challenge Google's right to take street-level photos for its Maps' Street View feature. Judge Amy Reynolds Hay from the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania granted Google's request for dismissing the lawsuit because 'the plaintiffs have failed to state a claim under any count.'"
Re:roadkill (Score:4, Informative)
Re:roadkill (Score:1, Informative)
Well, at least in certain countries, you're not allowed to enter another persons private property without authorization... because it's not your property.
It is NOT perfectly reasonable to drive down someone else's drive any more than it's perfectly reasonable to enter someone elses house when the door is open and use their exercise equipment.
Just because you *could* doesn't mean you *can*.
Some information (Score:5, Informative)
Some background on the law in the USA.
US law defines areas of private property in two different ways. There are true "private" areas, such as the inside of your home, and semi-public areas, called "curtilage." There's a sliding range of protection in each category, but we'll save that for another time.
Curtilage is your driveway, sidewalks leading up to your door, the treelawn, and possibly other areas immediately surrounding your house. Curtilage is basically any area where is is reasonable or expected for other people to enter. The reason there is a sidewalk leading to your front door is because you expect to use that door and you want people to use that path, instead of tramping across your lawn.
You can curb the expected curtilage rights to varying degrees by posting "Do Not Enter" signs, fencing in your yard, gating your driveway, etc. Otherwise the default is "anyone can enter," for reasonable/expected use.
Interestingly, anything the Police can observe inside the private areas of your property from the curtilage is fair game, in terms of not needing a warrant to enter. I.e., the police come to your front door and see [what reasonably appears to be] a kilo of cocaine, they can enter your house [at least as far as the room with the cocaine.]
Furthermore, at that point many jurisdictions would allow a brief search of the house in the name of officer safety too, to make sure there aren't any folks with weapons lurking. And anything illegal that is in plain sight can be seized. More than that, they do need a warrant, but it's a slippery slope. The moral is to hide your bad stuff in the first place.
I wandered a little off topic, but it calls for interesting analogies in the digital realm. What information that you send/receive is "private" and why/why not.
Re:roadkill (Score:3, Informative)
>>Off the top of my head: beaches are the only thing, in the USA, I can think of that are always public and you can always cross private land to reach.
Nope, not true, In NJ unless it has become a common access point ( has been open to the public and in use for 1 year or longer), you can shut your entrance to the beach. I know this to be valid in Point Pleasant, Long Beach Island, Deal, and Mantoloking. http://www.app.com/article/20081220/NEWS/81220018 [app.com]
currently in California, some people have refused to let people access to the beach via their property, Why? insurance liability. so until the state gives a blanket coverage for the issue, people are welding their gates. - sorry could not find the link for that
Re:Gold digging (Score:3, Informative)
Do you have any references for this?
This is from Wisconsin. Here you go: Wisconsin Statute 943.13 [state.wi.us] Trespass to Land.
Your ideals won't save your stupid ass from a beating or a bullet. Wise up.
Your beating or bullet won't save you from a civil suit or jail time. Wise up.
Re:roadkill (Score:3, Informative)
He's overloaded an operator for the car class. That bit of code was omitted for the sake of clarity.
Re:Gold digging (Score:3, Informative)
Your ideals won't save your stupid ass from a beating or a bullet. Wise up. The real world doesn't give a shit about you.
I love how these so called god fearing Christian Republicans will claim they will shoot you for setting one foot on their private property.
You do realize killing someone for simple trespass on your driveway will land you in jail for manslaughter. Or maybe you're too stupid.
Re:So does this mean that... (Score:4, Informative)
In sweden all general land areas are per definition public, only exception is the imediate surroundings of a house, farming fields with crops growing and of course military/industrial sites. But the later are not realy a problem, typicaly they are fenced.
Mostly it works quite ok, if you walk through the forest and happen to come upon a house, you just keep more or less out of sight, or at least outside the parts where they have cut the grass short. In the rural areas people quite often doesnt bother with fences, unless they want to keep animals out or in.
So its a nice country for trecking!
Re:roadkill (Score:3, Informative)
Off the top of my head: beaches are the only thing, in the USA, I can think of that are always public and you can always cross private land to reach.
Upstate New York's Adirondack State Park [wikipedia.org] is over six million acres of forest, mountains, lakes, and streams -- the largest state park in the continental U.S., almost as large as the entire state of Massachussetts. Half of the land in it, is actually privately-owned. Years ago, I hiked and camped there a lot, and frequently hiked along a state trail, only to find myself tramping across someone's backyard. And that is perfectly acceptable there. Very little land in the Adirondacks are truly off-limits to hikers, and it is very clearly marked. If you buy property there, you just know that hikers may be on your land. It's part of the deal. Your house is still private, but your land is fairly open access.
Re:Staged? (Score:2, Informative)